XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11, comp.os.linux.advocacy, comp.sys.mac.advocacy   
   From: recscuba_google@huntzinger.com   
      
   On 11/18/25 08:22, J. P. Gilliver wrote:   
   > On 2025/11/18 11:32:6, Daniel70 wrote:   
   >> ...   
   >>   
   >> So like 'they' did with 5.25 inch Floppies, 3.5 inch Floppies, CDs and,   
   >> I think, DVDs.   
   >   
   > Well, I never came across a floppy drive where you had to turn over the   
   > floppy - in fact most (certainly for the 3½") had mechanisms to prevent   
   > you doing so. They _did_ have two heads....   
      
   The slang term was pulling "flippies".  It was a thing way back in the   
   days of 5.25" drives which also only had heads on one side, and $20 for   
   a box of ten floppies made it an expensive hobby.   
      
   Those early 5.25" disks came with only one precut notch, which was used   
   for write-protecting a disk (you would tape over the notch), so a user   
   wanting to pull a "flippy" would have to manually cut a second notch for   
   the other side, to align with the (reed?) switch in the drive.  They   
   could then format the disk & use it normally.   
      
   If one didn't manually cut this notch, the hardware would assume that   
   the flipped-over disk had its notch taped-over, and thus write-protect   
   it.  That prevented fall writing to it, including formatting.   
      
   FWIW, there were 'nibbler' tools sold that would make this manual notch   
   cutting easy, but a lot of hobbyists would just DIY it themselves with   
   whatever cutter they had.  The risk was cutting too deep and hitting the   
   disk material, ruining the floppy, so a common practice would be to cut   
   the notch for a flippie before formatting/using either side of the disk.   
      
      
   -hh   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)